Selling isn’t hard. You do it every day.
You’ve sold your friends on Stranger Things, that new Mexican restaurant, the shoes you’re wearing that are soooo comfortable, the video game with the amazing graphics.
Selling is not only easy, it’s natural. When we discover something awesome, we automatically want to share the good news. (This is one reason why funny videos go viral.)
But there is one exception. One tripwire that snares the confidence of people with something to share.
Everything changes the moment you try to sell something you built.
If you wrote the book, if you built the course, if you’re the one welding the custom mailbox, a sinister fear creeps in and emasculates your sales copy.
You start making excuses for your pricing.
You focus too much on discounts or deadlines and not enough on the value of the product.
You make ambiguous promises about what the product or service might do.
And here’s what’s tricky…
Many times, you won’t know you’re doing it.
You won’t realize you’ve watered down the value of your product or service, and you’ll unknowingly move forward with flaccid sales copy. Fewer people will be helped by the solution you’re offering. And you’ll miss out on the money a strong pitch would have earned.
But surprisingly, as bad as that sounds, there’s an even more sinister threat. While you’re busy selling your own products short to others, you might even scare away yourself. You could lose faith in your own creation and ultimately quit.
In this post, I’ll reveal a simple mindset shift that will free you up to sell your products with conviction. Then I’ll give you a simple, three-step process to help you power up your sales pitch.
The simple mindset shift that frees you up to sell naturally
A close friend recently sent me some sales copy he was planning to email to his list. His goal was to sell more copies of his book, which I’ve fake renamed The Mega Productivity Supercharger.
My friend is a phenomenal writer. His work has literally been read by millions of people. What tripped him up wasn’t a lack of talent. It was the struggle of selling your own stuff.
Read this copy, and think about whether you’re compelled to buy what it’s selling.
In case you were wondering, I’m not in this for the money.
As a matter of fact, I’ve probably spent more money building my writing career, the website, and the videos than I will make back for a very long time.
But that’s okay, because the message matters more than the money. I’ve tried to drill this in to the small team that helps me here and there with my website. They didn’t get it at first. Now I think they understand.
I wasn’t kidding when I said I’ve published over 600 posts. Sometimes they take me an hour to make. Sometimes they take 10 hours.
Here’s the thing though:
We don’t value things we don’t pay for.
That’s why I’m going to ask you to buy what I consider my most valuable work to date – The Mega Productivity Supercharger.
Buy the book here right now.
If you’re reading this before Wednesday, you will still be able to get it for $4.99.
But I never pull my prices down. After that date, the book will be $7.99 (still a bargain for the amount of work which went into it).
Again, here’s the link to buy the book.
After reading this, can you sense my friend was struggling with the challenge of selling his own book?
What made it obvious?
The first 80% of the email makes excuses for the price, which is insane. (You don’t have to price-justify a $4.99 ebook.)
He gives zero actual reasons to buy the book. He mentions a discount, but discounts aren’t a reason to buy. They’re a reason to buy now. For me to care about the deadline, I need to know how this book will make my life better, and the email shies away from that.
Finally, he explains the book took a lot of work to write — also not a reason to buy.
Since I know my friend is a terrific writer, I wanted to find a way to unleash his talent. I knew the only way to do that was to trick him into selling his product like someone else built it.
So I asked him to write a new email. But this time, instead of his book, I wanted him to pick his favorite nonfiction book and write about that.
See how much better this second email is than the first.
When I finished A Million Miles by Donald Miller, I closed the book, grabbed my keys, and went to the closest jewelry store.
Why did I go to the jewelry store?
I needed to buy an engagement ring.
After reading this book, there was no other option – I had to propose to my girlfriend, Beth. I’d dragged my feet for too long.
Your life is a story. You are writing it every day. A Million Miles will help you realize how you can tell a better story and why it’s imperative you do so.
Would I have proposed to Beth without this book? Who knows? Maybe one day. Or maybe she would have gotten tired of me dragging my feet and moved on.
If you have ever doubted for a second your purpose in life – this book can help you.
If you have ever wondered what it all means – this book can show you.
If you have ever felt like life just happens to you – this book can turn that around.
Right now, you can get this book for only $4.99.
It won’t be that price for long.
On Wednesday, A Million Miles will move to $7.99, and it will very likely never come back down. $7.99 is still a bargain considering the effect it will have on your life, but I want you to get the best deal possible.
Grab the book right now for $4.99 and start living with intention.
(Note: I told him to keep the discount language intact, but that is NOT an actual promotion or price for A Million Miles — just an exercise.)
Look at the powerful promises my friend made for Donald Miller’s book:
A Million Miles will help you realize how you can tell a better story and why it’s imperative you do so.
If you have ever doubted for a second your purpose in life – this book can help you.
If you have ever wondered what it all means – this book can show you.
If you have ever felt like life just happens to you – this book can turn that around.
Grab the book right now for $4.99 andstart living with intention.
Isn’t that crazy?
Right away his writing comes to life, grabs my attention, and gives me compelling reasons to buy the book.
Does he ever make excuses for the price? Not once.
Does he shy away from clear promises? He has a whole list of them!
Does he talk about how hard the book must have been for Donald to write? No, he tells the readers how the book can change their lives.
My friend is happily doing his duty — sharing the good thing he’s found with people he cares about.
All it took was forgetting who actually wrote the book.
That’s the secret — the mindset shift that frees you up to sell naturally…
If you struggle to sell your own products, forget that it’s your stuff.
Easier said than done? You’re darn right. Let’s break the process down.
The three points below are not random tips. This is a process that should be done entirely and in order.
1. Remember why you built what you’re selling in the first place
Maybe your answer would look something like one of these:
I wrote this blog post because learning how to sell has changed my life and I want other people to have similar success.
I create custom coffee mugs because mornings suck and I want women to know something cute and cheerful is waiting for them.
I wrote this novel to explore the theme of forgiveness so I could start thinking about the future again.
Take a minute to write down your own reasons using the examples above as a template.
2. Stop selling the box
90% of the time, insecurity comes from the packaging, not what’s inside.
You know the information in your course can change lives because it changed yours. You just don’t like the way you look on camera.
You know the story in your novel can help readers take a chance on love because you’ve lived this journey. You’re just not as good a writer as Stephen King.
You know your handmade scarves can brighten someone else’s day because they brighten yours. But you’re embarrassed because your prices can’t compete with Walmart, and your online store isn’t as sharp as the Kate Spade website.
Here’s what you must understand.
No one buys the box!
People don’t buy courses to watch someone on camera. They’re paying for the promised transformation.
People don’t read novels simply for prose. They want to know what happens in the story.
People don’t usually buy clothes just because they’re cheap. They discover something they want and find the money to pay for it.
Your job is to show people why they should want what you have for them. Here’s how…
3. Start selling your story
It’s as simple as it is effective.
I used to be THERE. Then I found this EPIPHANY or this PRODUCT. That helped me get HERE — a place where I can do THIS and THIS and THIS. I realized other people wanted to get HERE too. So I…..
….wrote the The Mega Productivity Supercharger to help them learn the EPIPHANY.
….decided to sell my custom Gilmore Girls shirts on etsy so other people could share their love for the show too.
That’s not a sales pitch. It’s just you telling your story. The fact that you wrote the book or made the product doesn’t matter.
You found something that made your life better and now you’re recommending it to other people. That’s powerful salesmanship, my friend.
Your turn
Take a minute to write or rewrite your own sales story, using the template I shared in the previous section. If you would like my feedback, post your short pitch in the comments, and we can work on it together.
After you’ve done that, read this final thought…
We all have days where we feel insecure about what we’re selling. We get nasty feedback from a miserable troll and soon we’re sinking into self-doubt.
For these inevitable moments, it’s good to have a rainy day fund.
When customers tell you how your book or product or service has made their lives better, write it down and stuff it in a jar. When you hit a rough day, dump out your stash of encouragement and remind yourself of what’s true.
You have something good to share.
Selling is how you share it.
So forget who built the thing and start spreading the good news.
